Bottling Luxury
Packaging prestige products entails setting a brand apart from would-be competitors.
By Jim WagnerThe recent influx of mass-prestige or "mass-tige" brands to the cosmetic marketplace is having an impact on the marketers of true prestige, true luxury products. Mass-class items are being dressed up to look more prestigious, enabling their makers to charge more for them. This became apparent late in 2000, when department stores reported strong sales from products on the mass-class frontier.
Consequently, marketers of luxury fragrance are making an effort to set their products apart from their competitors. In this endeavor, packaging is key.
Concept Is Key
"With so many products competing for attention, one has to position luxury products correctly," says Amin Rizk, vice president of marketing for Boucheron (New York City). "It's important to have confidence in your marketing plan and to execute advertising properly." An interesting package, Rizk says, certainly helps.
When it comes to packaging a luxury fragrance, concept is critical. Boucheron understands this, as shown by its launch of Initial last October.
Initial is presented in a bottle that links the fragrance to the legacy of 140-year-old Boucheron. "We were the first jewelry perfumer," says Rizk, "so naturally we insist that all of our major fragrance brands stay true to our [history] as a jeweler."
Thus, Initial's flacon was inspired by a high-jewelry pearl pendant. The cap and collar include a sapphire cabochon, gilded gadroons, and a signature debossed B, the jewelry stamp of Boucheron. The parfum cap is metallized yellow gold, and the eau de parfum (EDP) is gray gold. The caps are supplied by MT Packaging (Paris); design is by Joel Desgrippes (Paris).
The bottles are blown by Saint-Gobain Desjonqueres (SGD; La Defense, France; and New York City). The glass is molded without seams, which could detract from the curves that imitate a jewel pendant. High- quality glass creates the gleam, purity, and shape of a fine pearl. The pearlescent effect is achieved by coating with an iridescent lacquer after molding.
Print Appeal
Another famous jeweler, Tiffany & Co. (New York City), differentiates its fragrances with packaging that impresses in print. Tiffany features such fragrances as Truest in its Blue Book and Blue Catalog. This marketing strategy requires fragrance brands to stand out on the page, as does Tiffany's newest fragrance, the Limited Edition Tiffany Parfum Flacon, setting a new standard for prestige packaging.
"The exclusive crystal flacon epitomizes contemporary design with sleek, gentle contours and a bevel-cut base that adds a dimensional quality to the flacon's graceful, feminine lines," says Nancy Kanterman, director of marketing for Tiffany & Co. "Each flacon is fire-polished for maximum smoothness and clarity and individually hand-engraved with a number." The bottles feature excellent glass distribution along the sides and the base. The flacon is made using a semiautomatic process by Brosse (Paris; New York City).
Designed and manufactured in-house, the Tiffany Parfum Flacon closure is made of silver. "In contrast to the bottle, the embellished sterling-silver stopper is inspired by an original floral design from the Tiffany archives and is hand-engraved with ÔTiffany & Co. 925,' says Kanterman. The Limited Edition is one stock-keeping unit and is sold only in Tiffany & Co. stores worldwide. The flacon comes wrapped in a Tiffany blue box with bow. Only 1000 hand-numbered bottles were manufactured for the launch
Packaging Personality.
No one combines luxury and comfort quite like Michael Kors. Known for his use of sumptuous cashmere and other fabrics for casual sportswear, Kors set out in 1999 to launch a signature fragrance. His goal was to infuse the fragrance with his sense of style.
Kors brought the idea to Parfums Givenchy Inc. (New York City), a subsidiary of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Camille McDonald, president and CEO of Parfums Givenchy, took the project. It was to be the first launch from Parfums Givenchy that had originated in America. "
Michael Kors was a first for LVMH," says McDonald. "It was the first time we developed a product from scratch from New York. The design team was terrific, but the whole structure was difficult to take on because of the extremely short timetable. In less than one year we completed our first launch, including all design, media, and marketing."
McDonald's team, which included Michael Kors himself and Chad Levine, vice president of creative services, put the project on a fast track to meet the October 2000 launch date. In spite of the time pressure, McDonald says, the project soon became a labor of love.
"Michael was involved from the start," says McDonald. "Do you know why the body lotion is called ÔFabulous,'the body shower 'Sexy,' and the body creme 'Expensive.' It's because that's exactly how he talks. He's ebullient, and his attitude affects everyone around him."
The challenge was to design packaging that would adequately convey Kors's personality to consumers, to translate his unique fashion sense into a fragrance. "His is almost a European aesthetic with an American view of comfort and luxury," says McDonald. "European styling usually means specific silhouettes and structure, but not comfort. Michael wants women to feel glamorous and comfortable all at the same time. He's about fashion that feels right, comfortable, and rich."
Deep recesses in the bottle's front and back panels, as well as the significant push-up of its glass bottom, complicated the execution of the design. Also a challenge was perfecting the distribution of glass around the bottle's sharp angles, especially around its shoulders. Dimensional tolerances were critical because the metal overcap, composed of several pieces, is fitted on the glass, and a small variance could prevent the cap from seating properly.
The bottle's sharp lines required extensive mold work. The rectangular bottle has an M shape faceted in the glass that creates a suspended inner bottle for the fragrance. When the bottle is tipped on its side, the M becomes a K. The applicator is also made from glass. The 1-oz bottle is hand-made by artisans contracted by Bormioli Luigi; the company also supplies the factice.
The line includes a 1.7- and a 3.4-oz EDP spray, a 5.1-oz body lotion, a 25-oz purse spray with refill, and a 5-oz body creme.
Repackaging Vetiver
Jean-Paul Guerlain (New York City) has reintroduced his class fragrance for men, Vetiver, in new, modern packaging. A complete range of bath and body products are available in the scent. Created by Guerlain in 1959, the fragrance, with its sophisticated scent and unforgettable freshness, is marketed to men of refined and discriminating taste.
The new packaging, designed by Robert Granai, exemplifies 21st century elegance, self-assurance, and individual style, according to Guerlain. The eau de toilette and after-shave lotion products come in a contemporary, sleek, square-sided bottle with alternating bands of frosted and clear glass through which the light-green-colored product is revealed.
The design of the bottle required SGD to distribute the glass precisely to prevent the thickness and spacing of the glass bands from being compromised. Other packaaging for the product line mirrors this look, with simple yet sophisticated folding cartons in the Vetiver signature-green color with accents of matte-finish gunmetal and silver.
The caps, supplied by Techpack (Paris; New York City), combine three snap-assembled parts for a heavy, easy-to-decorate surface. The transparent Surlyn base and top coat enclose a ring made of metal-filled polypropylene. The ring is finished with a gunmetal-colored varnish and engraved with the Vetiver name and Guerlain logo.
The Look of Luxury
Luxury products are a competitive arena. When it comes to marketing prestige products successfully, packaging that sets a brand apart isn't a luxury-it's a necessity.